These Marines trained together in the California desert. Now they're back to grow marijuana.

Tony Rivera and Sandra Silva-Tello enlisted in the Marines after high school in 1989. The El Centro natives trained at Twentynine Palms, a desert Marine base in southern California, then deployed: Okinawa, Somalia and Kuwait, both serving in Desert Storm.

After Rivera was discharged in 1993, he moved around the West, landing in Colorado as a truck driver. Silva-Tello stayed in the reserves until 1995, then got a psychology degree and worked with foster kids and adults with schizophrenia.

The future site of the marijuana grow business VetsLeaf in Desert Hot Springs.

The future site of the marijuana grow business VetsLeaf in Desert Hot Springs.

Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The pair reconnected in 2016 as Rivera sought out Marine friends on Facebook. He told Silva-Tello that he'd invested some money in a Colorado marijuana cultivation company, and he was considering launching his own venture in California, which looked poised to legalize recreational use of the drug.

“Tony and I were sitting watching TV, going back and forth, you think it’ll pass? Want to go in on it with me?” Silva-Tello said. “Sure, let’s do it. Veteran owned and operated and helping vets out? That’s something I would be interested in doing.”

Silva-Tello has never used marijuana, and she's taught her own children to be careful with alcohol and drugs. But after Rivera brought her the idea, she began to learn about research exploring medical marijuana as a treatment for conditions that affect veterans, especially post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and chronic pain.

She talked it over with her husband and kids, and the conclusion was simple: Most analysts believe the marijuana industry is on the cusp of incredible growth. Companies who get into the market quickly stand to make a lot of money.

"The condition that I had was that we had to help other vets," Silva-Tello said.

At a platoon reunion in November in Davenport, Iowa, where one of Rivera's brothers-in-arms was buried, two more Marines and one non-veteran joined the company, which they called VetsLeaf. They agreed to split profits six ways: One part for each co-owner and one to be donated to veterans organizations.

Former Marines Tony Rivera and Sandra Silva-Tello will be operating VetsLeaf, a large marijuana ...more

Former Marines Tony Rivera and Sandra Silva-Tello will be operating VetsLeaf, a large marijuana grow operation, near Little Morongo Road and Two Bunch Palms Trail in Desert Hot Springs.

Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Finding a community

VetsLeaf landed in Desert Hot Springs, a windswept town about 40 miles from the Marine base where the group served. Desert Hot Springs was the first city in California to allow the commercial cultivation of marijuana in 2014. Medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996, but recreational use wasn't approved until 2016.

Three cultivation facilities have opened in Desert Hot Springs and dozens more are in the works.

The city of 25,000 people has about 3,200 veterans, according to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. One cultivation company, Freedom Flower, recently gave the VFW a $5,000 donation — huge compared to most donations, according to post commander Jeff Horton — and he hopes other cultivators will do the same.

"If you're bringing billions of dollars into your own pocket, what are you doing for your community?" Horton said. "Having these industries here, what is going to be the actual beneficial factor for them being within our city limits? Are they just making a buck for themselves, or are they actually helping out with the communities?"

Horton, who suffers from PTSD and fibromyalgia after serving in the U.S. Army in Kosovo and Iraq, does not use cannabis. He is disabled and relies on federal benefits, and using marijuana remains a federal crime. He also thinks heavy use would make him unable to focus or work.

But Horton estimated that about 45 percent of his VFW's members use marijuana, especially those who served in the Vietnam War and later.

"We do have a lot of members here that actually use it medicinally to be able to treat their ailments. I support them. If it makes them feel good, then God darn it, come down to the post and relax," Horton said.

Jeff Horton has been commander of VFW Post 1534 in Desert Hot Springs since June.

Jeff Horton has been commander of VFW Post 1534 in Desert Hot Springs since June.

Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Veterans and marijuana use

The federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which severely limits federally funded research into potential medical benefits, including research by the Veterans Administration. But in 2016, the American Legion, a prominent veterans advocacy organization, declared support for rescheduling marijuana to allow that research.

Joe Plenzler, a Marine Corps veteran and Legion national spokesperson, said members have been telling leadership for years about their experience with marijuana as treatment for PTSD, chronic pain, insomnia and traumatic brain injury.

"We have veterans suffering and dying, 20 committing suicide every day... we pay attention to this in a very serious manner," Plenzler said. "We're not for legalization in general at this point, but our position is, we're advocating for the federal government to enable medical researchers to pursue every avenue possible to improve treatments for our vets."

The Veterans Administration prohibits marijuana possession at its facilities, and VA doctors cannot prescribe medical marijuana. But according to the VA, "veterans who participate in state-approved medical marijuana programs will not be denied access to VA healthcare."

Veterans working in cannabis: 'Not some charity outreach'

VetsLeaf plans to grow marijuana for both recreational and medical use, Rivera said. Their products won't be limited to veterans — but they do plan to hire as many vets as possible, he said.

And they're not the only ones.

"We think vets are uniquely poised to thrive in this industry," said Seth Smith, communications director for the Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance, a veteran-owned medical marijuana collective. The Alliance estimates that 85 percent of its staffers are veterans, including Smith, who served in the Navy.

"Right now it's still a gray industry," and following regulations to the letter is critical as the industry legitimizes, Smith said. Veterans "understand the benefit of doing things right, and we know how that can help us in the long run. We want to have that track record of doing the right thing the whole time."

Ryan Jennemann, founder of Los Angeles-based THC Design, is starting a 12-week cultivation training program for veterans this month. Six people will learn the trade, then have the option to move up to full-time positions, which earn $25 per hour.

"Hiring veterans is not some charity outreach," Jennemann said, though he acknowledged that it burnishes the company's image.

His company is currently hiring about one person a week, and what he needs most are trustworthy, dependable workers, Jennemann said. "This isn't some stoner industry where you can just show up whenever you want. Most of our locations open at 7 a.m., operate seven days a week, 12-hour days. This isn't for the faint of heart... what we demand of our workers is something that (veterans) fit right into."

VetsLeaf's Rivera emphasized that he doesn't want VetsLeaf's support for veterans to be seen as a gimmick. Nor does he want to funnel donations to inefficient or suspect charities.

In June, the Vietnam Moving Wall, a traveling memorial to the Vietnam War, will spend four days in Desert Hot Springs. Both Rivera and Silva-Tello plan to stand guard.

In August, they hope to break ground on their 32,000-square-foot greenhouse facility. VetsLeaf aims to make its first sale by April 2018.

“It's not just to make money, it's to bring on other veterans, to help them grow. If they understand that, we brought them onto our team," Silva-Tello said. "It's gone to something so much bigger than us."

Rosalie Murphy covers real estate and business at The Desert Sun. Reach her at rosalie.murphy@desertsun.com or on Twitter @rozmurph.